Kicking off the Edge: 2012 Style

Human Bingo!

The Edge Kickoff - What is the Gospel?

In the Summer of 2009, my old staff partner, Esther, and our supervisor, Tammy, sat down together to evaluate the chapter.  At the time, we had about 20 total people involved in two different small groups.  We had a "large group" event once per month where we'd throw together a campus-wide event that a few other folks would show up to as well.  Overall, we weren't really very satisfied with where things were going - nobody was coming to faith, we had no idea what we were doing with discipleship, and the chapter had never gotten beyond those 20 people since it was first planted.

So, we scrapped everything. No more small groups. No more "large" group. We started from scratch and got everybody interested in InterVarsity into one room.  All 12 of them.  We called this new group "The Edge" because we wanted to take the Gospel to the edges of our campus - every corner, every people group, every dorm, everywhere.  That year, 12 people grew to 19. The next year the 19 became about 50 which then grew to 90 people involved in InterVarsity at SLU across 12 Bible studies and at least 40 people coming to The Edge every week.

Last night, we kicked off the year officially with about 70 people crammed into a classroom meant for 60 at the most.  We even got them up for a game of Human Bingo (check the picture - it was tight).  We preached the Gospel. We told them about our Bible studies (or "cells"). We sang songs. We ate cookies.  Honestly, it was awesome. Every time we do this in September, I'm reminded both why I love my job and why it matters.  Who knows what will happen with those 70 people?  Some of them may never come back.  But some of them may take my job one day or plant churches, or be amazing Christian nurses and lawyers and doctors and more.  Some of them may meet Jesus for the first time or get plugged into healthy community for the first time.  Lots of them might at least find a home away from home.  Whatever happens, God is good and we're happy to be back in the swing of things!

New Student Outreach 2012

Labor Day Barbecue at SLU

It's been a busy few weeks already here at SLU!  Let me give you a little recap of what InterVarsity has been upto:

Aug 22-23 - The leaders gather in Saint Louis to pray and plan for the semester to come. We study Matthew 28 and talk about what it means to "Go and make disciples of all nations" on campus.

Saturday (8.25) - We set up a table on campus to pass out 300+ water bottles and 200 Capri Suns to freshmen on campus tours.  About 60 of them filled out interest cards!

Waiting for students at SLU Fair

Sunday (8.26) - A few of us attended the first Mass of the year at College Church, an annual SLU tradition complete with Ted Drewes frozen custard!

Tuesday (8.28) - Campus Ministries open house - we joined the other affiliated campus ministries at SLU for a night of worship music and meeting interested students - lots of great conversations!

Wednesday (8.29) - SLU Fair - the student organization fair where we usually meet a lot of the new freshmen as they tour all the student organizations on campus. We had about 12 IV leaders work the table (in the heat!) - they were amazing at meeting people!

A little cereal for your ice cream?

Thursday (8.30) - Follow-up day! We visited and took gifts to people who had given us their contact information (and invited them to brunch on Saturday!)

Saturday (9.1) - Freshmen Breakfast! This was our biggest one ever with over 30 freshmen spread across 4 apartments as upperclassmen cooked breakfast and hosted our new friends. So. Many. Pancakes :)

Sunday (9.2) -  IV Goes to Church - Every September we take students to different churches in St. Louis.  We really value church involvement in InterVarsity so we try to connect students with local congregations that love college students and are actively on mission in the city. This week, we went to August Gate Church.

Monday (9.3) - Labor Day Barbecue - Last year we started a tradition of grilling out by the pool on Labor Day to welcome back the returning students from previous years and introduce them to all our new freshmen friends. Last year, I had no idea what I was doing with charcoal (I'm a gas guy!) but this year, I learned my lesson and bought a chimney for the coals.  We served about 150 hot dogs and hamburgers and actually ran out of food a couple hours in.  All in all, I'd guess at least 100 people stopped by, both new friends and old.

All in all, we've met and followed-up with about 160 new students, including more new upperclassmen than any year I can remember.  It's been quite a ride!  We could really use your prayers as we faithfully continue to build relationships with so many new folks and take every opportunity to share the Gospel along the way!

Sharing the Load

In August of 2008, I was just getting back to St. Louis from having spent 6 weeks in Cairo, Egypt. I was beginning my internship with InterVarsity and we were preparing for the upcoming school year.  I had never been behind the scenes in starting a school year in college ministry and I was curious to see how exactly we were going to go from seeing random people walking through the quad to getting those people to come to our Bible studies.  But, there was at least one freshmen that already had a connection with us.  We had heard that one of our co-workers had a fiance who had a younger brother coming to SLU as a freshman that year.  We figured that at least he would come to our Bible study so I felt a little better.
The Wednesday after school began, we were at SLU Fair, the student organization fair where all the student groups on campus congregate to tell freshmen and other folks about the groups available to them.  My supervisor pointed at a kid walking through the crowd and said, "I think that's Cris' younger brother!"  We called out "Robert!" (we heard that was his name) and he came over to the table.  A few minutes later he was wearing one of our signs on his chest and handing out fliers - three days into his freshman year.
Flash forward four years and Robert is now stepping on to campus to begin his Intern year with InterVarsity at SLU (and even living with me until I get married!).  That's him sitting next to me in the picture above.  Robert would spend a lot of his freshman year in one of our Bible studies before coming on to our leadership team and serving as one of our primary leaders during his time in college.  Robert is a good friend and a gifted evangelist with a huge heart for international students on campus.  He will be spending most of his time this year working with me at SLU, training and discipling cell planters, and leading out in our outreach to international students.  He'll also be spending some time scouting and potentially chapter-planting at Flo Valley Community College with one of our co-workers.
It's been over two years since I last had a staff partner at SLU and I am so excited for how God will use our partnership to grow both Robert and I and to bless the campus and students.  Praise God for community in mission!